No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands

Ruan, Leilei; Robertson, G. Philip

doi:10.1002/saj2.20082

No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands

Journal Article · Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Soil Science Society of America Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20082· OSTI ID:1682236

Ruan, Leilei ^[1]; ^[2]

Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI (United States); Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (United States); Michigan State University W. K. Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Plant, Soil & Microbial Sciences
Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI (United States); Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (United States)

Expanding biofuel production is expected to accelerate the conversion of unmanaged marginal lands to meet biomass feedstock needs. Greenhouse gas production during conversion jeopardizes the ensuing climate benefits, but most research to date has focused only on conversion to annual crops and only following tillage. Here we report the global warming impact of converting USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands to three types of bioenergy crops using no–till (NT) vs. conventional tillage (CT). We established replicated NT and CT plots in three CRP fields planted to continuous corn, switchgrass, or restored prairie. For the 2 yr following an initial soybean year in all fields, we found that, on average, NT conversion reduced nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions by 50% and CO₂ emissions by 20% compared with CT conversion. Differences were higher in Year 1 than in Year 2 in the continuous corn field, and in the two perennial systems the differences disappeared after Year 1. In all fields net CO₂ emissions (as measured by eddy covariance) were positive for the first 2 yr following CT establishment, but following NT establishment net CO₂ emissions were close to zero or negative, indicating net C sequestration. Overall, NT improved the global warming impact of biofuel crop establishment following CRP conversion by over 20–fold compared with CT (–6.01 Mg CO₂e ha^–1 yr^–1 for NT vs. –0.25 Mg CO₂e ha^–1 yr^–1 for CT, on average). We also found that Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates of N₂O emissions (as measured by static chambers) greatly underestimated actual emissions for converted fields regardless of tillage. Policies should encourage adoption of NT for converting marginal grasslands to perennial bioenergy crops to reduce C debt and maximize climate benefits.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Battelle Memorial Institute,Columbus, OH (United States); University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018409

OSTI ID:: 1682236

Journal Information:: Soil Science Society of America Journal, Journal Name: Soil Science Society of America Journal Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 84; ISSN 0361-5995

Publisher:: Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science SocietiesCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (1)

Data from: No‐till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands Robertson, G.; Ruan, Leilei Dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cfxpnvx2v	dataset	January 2020